Flunkies & French
by VeVe2491
Summary: Austin's parents have never approved of his dream of becoming a 'Rockstar'. So when Austin flunks French class, his parents begin to see that maybe it isn't such a bad thing... in fact maybe it can help them squash his 'silly little dreams' for good.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Flunkies & France**

Miami Hill High was well known throughout Miami as one of the best schools in the city. It was known for it's able, talented and bright students, and it's long list of noatable alumini. Which is why when Mr and Mrs Moon were making the carefully decision of which school their only son would go to the chose Miami Hill High. They had every faith in their son that he would do well and leave school with the best grades possible, even if his vision of the future was slighty askew with his dreams of becoming a 'famous rockstar'.

Parent Teacher Conference evening is a popular event at Miami Hill High as it gives parents the chance to learn of all their children's endaveours in their education, it also gives them a chance to boast afterwards to fellow parents about how well their son or daughter is doing. So, on the night of March sixteenth Mr and Mrs Moon left their home with high hopes that they would be one of the lucky sets of parents to stand and boast about their son's achievements.

Mrs Moon was a tall woman, with short platinum blonde hair cut into a neat bob. Her eyes unlike her son's were a icy blue clolour and her features were sharp and sun kissed. Mrs Moon back in her youth before giving birth to the bundle of joy that had been Austin, was a supermodel, she had travelled the circuit with dreams of becoming the next Twiggy or perhaps Bridget Bardot. Sadly, childbirth put her body through the blender and taking care of her son was a full time commitment. Mrs Moon's dreams were gone.

Mr Moon, like his wife was tall. He had broad shoulders and short blonde hair that fell messily at odd angles. His eyes were a shade darker than Austin's and he often had a look of contemplation written across his face. Mr Moon like both his wife and son, he too had once had big dreams. Mr Moon had dreamed of becoming the President of the United States. Lot's of kids when they are young and foolish have the same wish, but Mr Moon had genuinely believed he could do it. Sadly, dreams seldom become realitym and Mr Moon and given up on his dreams and had settled for his job in a large law firm in the heart of Miami.

Mr and Mrs Moon therefore both knew of the ache that came with dreams, and had come to the decision that they were going to protect their son from the same pain and suffering that they had gone through. Unfortunately their son was as stubborn as a bull. No matter how often either parent explained to him becoming a rockstar was simply not practica, Austin ignored them and continued on his quest. For a while the two parents had not been too concerned, although they had encouraged Austin to excell and expand on his musical talents for playing which ever instrument he happened to pick up, they were never too worried that he would throw everything else away to become a singer for Austin had not talent in the art of song writing. Everything in their plans for their son's future had been running smoothly until he had been so 'fortunate' as to meet Ally Dawson. That's when all their hard work and effort went down the toilet.

At first the parents had been furious, both of them wracking their brains and pulling at their hair, in the vain attempt to squash these ridiculous dreams. Then reluctantly they had let Austin do as he wished, they let him have his fifteen minutes of fame. But then fifteen minutes became an hour. And hour became a day. And soon a mere fifteen minutes had turned into seven months. Five months in Mr and Mrs Moon had told Austin that providing he kept up his grades they would allow him to persue this 'silly little dream of his'.

Before all this rockstar nonesense had really taken off, Austin's grades had kept at a stady stream of Bs, the occasional A popping up here and there. Sadly, Sophmore year had apparently not gone well for Austin, as his parents were about to discover.

"Mom, Dad, are you sure you want to go see Madame Voisin? I mean, really, it's getting late and I'm sure Dad has some court case he has to work on, and you have some book you need to finish reading for book club, right?" Austin Moon asked, as he walked alongside his parents.

Mrs Moon laughed haughtily, "Of course not sweetheart. You know your father and I always prepare for things ahead of time. It's not that late, and this is the last stop. Now please calm down, you're going to create a scene."

Austin resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Whatever he did his mother would always assume he was about to cause a scene, it had been this way since he was a young kid. Of course, back then he had caused a few scenes but what kid hadn't? Except for maybe Ally, she was terrified of public humiliation.

The door to his French classroom was closed and Austin felt he was about to burst with happiness. Some other poor student was probably locked inside with their unfortunate parents, while they listened to Madame Voisin the short and round french teacher, spout of reasons as to why their child was failing the subject. Although Austin did feel sorry for whomever it was, he was too busy being happy for himself as it meant Madame Voisin was going to miss her appointment with him and his parents. This was great!

Or at least it was, until the door opened and out stepped Ally and her father Lester. Austin groaned inwardly at this. He was happy to see Ally, he was always happy to see Ally, he was not however happy to see that Madame Voisin was now available to talk to his parents.

Austin was not shocked when he saw the broad smile on Ally's face and the words of praise coming from Madame Voisin's mouth as she said her final words to Ally and her father. Austin knew Ally was acing french, how could she not? She was Ally Dawson, she didn't fail at anything. Ever. Especially not school.

Ally seemed to smile even wider when she locked eyes with Austin, sadly her smiled wavered slightly when she caught sight of Austin's parents beside him, and Austin understood. His parents hated Ally. It was like she was Harry Potter and his parents were Voldemort. Ally had done nothing wrong and yet they couldn't stand the girl, and often showed it in their body language. Mr Moon's eyes would narrow and Mrs Moon would curl her lip and scrunch up her nose as if she had just smelt something particularly disgusting.

Austin distracted his parents quickly with one of the colourful displays on the wall next to them, and let Ally and her father pass by quickly, offering them both an apologetic smile as the hurried away.

"Enough of this Austin," Mr Moon barked as pushed his son's hand away from the back of his work blazer. "We're going to be late for our appointment."

Mr and Mrs Moon walked the few steps left to the French room, leaving Austin trailing behind after them, his mind working at a mile a minute to fabricate some tale as to why his french grades were less than satisfactory...

It wasn't that Austin hadn't tried because he had, at the start of the year anyway. French just didn't come easily to him, unlike music. In September when Austin had first noticed his French grades slip he had turned to his friends for help. Trish had advised him to speak to the elderly french woman who spent her mornings in Suzy's Soups, eating her soup and reading last weeks newspaper. Dez had sat with him and watched dubbed french versions of some of his favourite shows, this had not helped as neither boy managed to stay focused for more than five minutes before becoming distracted. Ally had sat with him and gone through his work, until he understood at least some of it, but even that had not helped. In the end Austin had just done what he needed to do to get by in the class, but apparently he had needed to do more.

Austin had tried explaining this to his parents during the car journey home. They were not listening.

Not knowing what more he could say, or wanting to be yelled at, Austin made a mad dash for the stairs the minute they entered the cool, air conditioned house. Sadly, his parents were having none of this. His dad took him by the arm and led him to the couch. His mother stood opposite him glaring at her son.

"Well?" She asked, her arms were folded over her chest and Austin could see her claw like nails digging into her skin. His mother did this often when she was angry. Mrs Moon had an issue with her temper, whereas her husband providing he had not just returned from a long day at work was usually the more relaxed of the pair. "Care to explain the E you are currently achieving in French?"

"Well I -"

"No, I know exactly why you're getting an E, it's because of this ridiculous dream of yours, isn't it? Mike, I knew we should not have let him continue on in this delusion of his! I knew it!" Mrs Moon hissed.

Mr Moon put an arm around his wife's back and began rubbing soothing circles with his large hand. "I know sweetie. I know. Austin, where in life do you think an E in French is going to get you?"

Austin thought for a moment. He couldn't see what the big deal was, it was an E which wasn't even definite yet, he still had time to pull it up. "I didn't try for an E Dad," He pointed out, trying desperately not to let his voice fall into a confrontational tone, for he knew it would not end well for him if it did.

"No you didn't try at all!" Mrs Moon snapped.

Austin opened his mouth to argue but his father held up a hand to silence him, "Don't lie to us son. You're sock puppet of Madame Voisin is enough to prove that."

Austin sunk lower in his seat. Okay, so maybe creating a sock puppet verison of Madame Voisin had not been the best idea, but it had been funny. Heck, even Ally had giggled at 'Mini-Madame' and her dreadful french accent.

Mr Moon sighed, "Just go to your room Austin, I can't deal with you right now. Your mother and I are going to have a discussion. We will let you know in the morning about your punishment."

"But Dad -"

"No, Austin."

The blonde pulled himself up slowly from the couch and dragged himself up the stairs and to his room. He honestly couldn't see why his parents were so peeved. It was only French after all, he was doing fine in all his other subjects. In fact, his grade in Math had gone up! Yet, they were still furious at him. Maybe thing would be better in the morning...


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Flunkies & French**

"Morning! How did your Parent Teacher meetings go? Mine were awesome," Ally babbled excitedly as Austin took his seat beside her in homeroom.

Austin smiled warmly at Ally. One of the great things about Ally was that the small things in life really seemed to brighten her mood, which in turn made her brighten everyone else's moods. "They were... okay."

"That's great!" Ally beamed at him. "I thought your parents were gonna be mad at you because of your C in French."

Austin laughed nervously and looked away from his best friend. Explaining to Ally that he was doing even worse in French than she believed would be hard, simply because she wouldn't yell at him like his parents had. No, Ally would look at him with disappointment for the whole day, before lashing out at him in the practice room after school. This day was just not going his way.

"What?"

"What d'you mean, 'what'?"

"You. You just laughed all nervous as if you were about to get in trouble."

"No I didn't."

"Yes, you did. You just did it again!"

"I think you're hearing things Ally."

"No, I'm not! I said that I was worried about your parents' reactions to your French grade and then you laughed nervously. Like this," Ally mimicked his nervous laughter and Austin was unsure wether to be impressed as to how spot on her impression was, or to be worried that she was catching onto him pretty quickly. "Now explain."

"I'd rather not."

"Austin."

"Ally."

"Austin just tell me what's wrong!"

Austin sighed. "My parents were mad."

Ally looked at him with sympathetic eyes, "Did you explain to them that it was just a C, so it wasn't really a fail?"

"Well..."

"'Well...' what?" Ally glared at him. Austin knew he shouldn't keep things like this from her but then he didn't want her to lecture him about his grades either.

"My grade is a little... lower, than a C."

"How much lower?"

"I don't think that really matters -"

"How much lower was it Austin?"

"Two grades lower..." He mumbled quietly, feeling somewhat ashamed now.

"You're on a E in French!" Ally exclaimed. "What about all my tutoring? What about all that extra work I gave you?"

"The tutoring helped, sorta. And after you left I kept getting too distracted to do the extra papers you were giving me."

"Austin!"

"I'm sorry! But at least I tried when you were there, right? I mean, if I didn't I'd probably be on an F right now -"

"Austin, that's not the point," Ally sighed before taking a deep breath to calm herself down. Austin couldn't understand why she was getting so worked up about this anyway, it was just French after all. "What did your parents say?"

Austin shrugged.

"That doesn't answer my question. They didn't just shrug Austin, I know what your parents are like. They always have something to say."

Ally was right. Austin's parents never failed to let their opinions known, wether said opinions were wanted or not. "They didn't really say anything."

"Seriously?" Ally asked surprised.

Austin nodded. "They were mad at first. They even yelled at me when we got home, but this morning it was like it didn't ever happen. Dad had already left for work and Mom was reading a magazine out by the pool."

"And your mom said nothing to you?"

"Not a word. She didn't even look up when I said goodbye, which I guess is pretty weird since usually she reminds me to remind her to arrange for me to get a hair cut."

"You don't need a hair cut," Ally said off handedly as she reached into her bag to pull out her Book. "I don't understand your parents."

"No, me neither," Austin agreed as he watched her scrawl in her sacred Book. "But then their elderly, what do you expect?"

"Austin, just because someone is older than 25 that does not make them elderly."

"Whatever. Did you do the English assignment yet?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Do you think that maybe you could let me cop-"

"Austin!"

"What? It was worth a shot."


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Flunkies & French**

"Ally please do not make me go in there!" Austin Moon begged as Ally pulled him down the hallway.

"Austin you cannot cut class. It's just French."

"Just French?" He gapped at her. "Ally, after last night's Parent Teacher Conference Madame Voisin may actually follow my parents instructions and fail me if I don't work."

"So do the work then Austin."

Austin pulled her back and she stared at him in surprise. The two of them had both known the entire time Ally had been pulling him through the corridors that if Austin had actually wanted to stop her from dragging him along he could have. Ally just hadn't expected it.

"I can't," He mumbled to her. Austin was beginning to feel kind of embarassed. Usually he laughed these things off and made a joke of it, but now just before French class was due to start Austin was becoming nervous about how Madame Voisin would treat him. In French class he was the class clown, he made the dull and boring lesson bareable for other students, and now he would lose that title and end up like Ally. Just with out the super smart brain and A plus on his report card.

"Why not?"

"Because... it's hard. It doesn't make sense to me. I'm not french therefore I do not speak french, and since I don't plan on ever being a French teacher then I don't actually need to learn this lousy language."

Ally narrowed her eyes and placed her hands on her hips. "What if you go to France on your world tour, how are you gonna speak to your fans, huh?"

"You actually think I'll go on a world tour?" Austin said excitedly, his face lighting up like the fourth of July.

Ally threw her hands in the air in frustration, spun on her heel and marched the rest of the way down the hall to classroom. "You're impossible Austin Moon!" She yelled back to him.

The blonde groaned. He hated upsetting Ally, her angry face was not one he delighted in seeing. Reluctantly Austin follwed Ally down the hallway, dreading the next hour with Madame Voisin.

* * *

"See that wasn't so bad," Ally pointed out as she and Austin exited the stuffy classroom sixty minutes later.

"She gave me four past papers, a study guide and a booklet to complete by our next lesson. Which is in two days!" Austin exclaimed. "And I'm pretty sure I remember doing this booklet back in seventh grade."

Ally took the booklet off him and flicked through it, "Maybe you did. But look on the bright side, this booklet should be pretty easy if you were using it back then. Look, it even has a picture for you to colour in!"

Despite his love of colouring this discovery did not make him any happier. "Ally, that's not the point. How am I supposed to do all this in two days?"

"I'll help you."

"How? Nearly all your free time is taken up by work... I suppose that doesn't really make it free time at all..." Austin trailed off towards the end as he began to think about when Ally actually got any free time at all.

"I don't spend all my spare time working, Austin. I write your music too remember. But I'll find some extra time for me to help you, so don't worry. Ally D's got you covered."

Austin laughed in amusment at her self proclaimed nickname, and opened his locker up to ditch his books during lunch. "Thanks Ally. I still don't think we're going to have enough time to complete all this in two days."

"What're you doing?" She asked as Austin went to take the booklet off her.

"Putting all this junk away so that we can go get lunch."

Ally shook her head, "Oh no! There's no time for lunch, you can eat later. We're going to the library to get started on all of this."

"But Ally!" Austin whined and his stomach grumbled along with him in protest.

"No buts! You can grab something from the snack machine near the library," She stated as she began pulling his french work back out of his disgracefully untidy locker. "Ready?"

Austin just smiled giddily at her. "You said butts," He snickered childishly.

Ally rolled her eyes at him and huffed, "Boys."

This was going to be hard work.


End file.
